Data centers are designed to include various electrical equipment/components that are stacked in various rack type housings. The racks are typically configured to circulate airflow in a front to back arrangement, with cool to hot airflow. However, in certain instances, the electrical equipment is configured to vent and cool using a side to side airflow. Thus, racks filled that are filled with side to side airflow cooling configured equipment in a front to back cooling data center configuration may cause heated air to become trapped in the racks, which can result in superheating of the surrounding air. This situation therefore may result in premature side to side airflow equipment failure, while further corrupting the airflow of adjacent equipment designed for front to back cooling.
Accordingly, as it is impractical to fill a specific rack with all of one type of equipment that requires either side to side cooling or front to back cooling, there is a need in the art of rack mounted equipment for a selectively adjustable airflow segregation panel that permits cool aisle air to be selectively directed with respect to an equipment rack, to allow adequate heat transfer of the surrounding air.